A €235,000 investment in cutting edge energy technology has repaid itself in less than three years, the manager of an East Cork Hotel said at the launch of a case study in the hotel.

The Garryvoe Hotel has expanded in recent years from a two-star 17-bedroom hotel to a four-star 84 bedroom hotel with modern conference facilities and fully equipped health club with swimming pool.

The Garryvoe Hotel team worked closely with Bord Gáis Networks to secure a natural gas connection from Ladysbridge, involving the construction of approximately 5km of gas pipeline along the R632 to Garryvoe. Work commenced on the natural gas project in October 2009 and all teams liaised to ensure timely completion of the project in December 2009, enabling the Garryvoe Hotel to start using natural gas on schedule in January 2010.

A major focus of hotel's evolution was to develop a suite of best in class technical solutions to minimise operating costs, focusing on energy management, energy efficiency and implementing an exceptionally advanced energy solution. As such, it became clear that the addition of a CHP (Combined Heat and Power) energy solution was ideal for the hotel’s development.

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The Hotel Manager, Stephen Belton, knew that replacing his existing fuel sources with natural gas would greatly reduce energy costs and the hotel’s overall impact on the environment.

"The Garryvoe Hotel, over the past four years, has invested almost €350,000 on our CHP/Trigeneration energy system throughout our hotel and health club. The efficiency of the machinery and processes involved in Combined Heat and Power was one of the main reasons why we invested in this energy project.

"With the continued prospect of increased fuel costs over the next 10-15 years, it has to make commercial sense to look to improving all the processes in energy usage throughout any building. We have data showing the savings running to €130,000 a year so the payback is commercially obvious.

"But we also believe the environmental payback is important also. We feel it was definitely the correct decision to install a CHP plant, combined with absorption chiller technology, and run it on natural gas and we look forward to continuing to enjoy the saving in the years to come."

The addition of 67 new bedrooms, a 1,200 sq ft gym and a 25m indoor heated swimming pool had represented a significant increase in thermal demand. The solution developed for The Garryvoe Hotel included natural gas to fuel the CHP equipment, natural gas for the hotel’s extensive kitchens, CHP to generate electricity, heat from the CHP for hotel and leisure centre use, Heat from the CHP harvested for efficient air conditioning, a heat recovery system, and a Building Energy Management System (BEMS).

(CD/GK)